Freeport to Freeport: Students helping students in Sandy's wake

FREEPORT, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Move over L.L. Bean, some students in this coastal community are gathering up goods to make a special holiday delivery of their own.

Students at Freeport High School saw all the destruction done by Superstorm Sandy and felt compelled to help out people still struggling to recover, so they organized their own relief effort to collect school supplies and money to give to kids impacted by the storm in a New York town that shares the same name.

"It definitely helps knowing that there are people making sure things are working out, because I know like down there, a lot of people are helping out with the schools and making sure that students are getting to the right places and it really was nice seeing that everyone was making sure everything was getting done," said Abigial Smith, a Freeport senior who has spearheaded the effort.

Smith, along with members of the school's Interact Club and Freeport Community Services, have set up collection boxes throughout town seeking donations of gift cards, cash and school supplies.

"I think it is really relevant to kids our age, because we go to school, we know what it is like, we know exactly how hard it is not to have school supplies and not to have the same resources they wouldn't have," explained senior, Sophie Smith.

Organizing the project has not only taught the kids a civics lesson, but also about the logistics of setting up a large-scale fundraiser and then getting the resources and people needed to deliver the goods to Freeport, New York, some 350 miles away.

"This opportunity provides more than just relief for the people, but it also helps us learn about how to organize trips, how to raise money, what we can do in our community," added Sophie Smith. "We learn more about ourselves and where we live and how we can help another place."

Students will be collecting supplies and money right up until the holiday break, then will work to coordinate with their counterparts in New York on a plan to deliver all the items they collect.